Matt Walters races Aprilia RSV4 1100 at ASBK

Walters rides Aprilia for ASBK 2023

After nearly 15 years of Kawasaki racing with Matt Walters out of the Green Team for the 2023 season, the 30-year-old racer is turning a new page and making a bold move to Aprilia machines for the 2023 season.

What makes this move particularly exciting is that Walters will not be racing on the 1000 cc RSV4, but on the base RSV4 1100.

Yes, due to special permission from Motorcycling Australia, at the request of Team Walters, Matt will be allowed to run the longer-stroke 1099 cc engine in this year’s ASBK.

We expect an update to the Motorcycling Australia Sports Regulations to be issued in the coming days to reflect the change.

Walters has just ordered some racetrack shields from abroad, but highly doubt they will arrive in time for the official ASBK test at SMP. If they don’t arrive in time, he will face a severe seat shortage leading up to the opening round.

The 2022 Aprilia RSV4 Matt received comes with Sachs suspension, however, he will be running the K-Tech DDS suspension when the ASBK season kicks off at Phillip Island at the end of February.

In standard form, Aprilia claims 217 hp at 13,000 rpm from the 1,099cc RSV4, along with 125 Nm of torque at 10,500 rpm. On the road, the RSV4 weighs 202 kg with 15 liters of fuel in a 19 liter tank.

For comparison, the Ducati V4 R makes 218 hp on the road, or 240 hp and 118 Nm with the track set and about 10 kg lighter than the Aprilia. However, we do know that it is fairly easy for Ducati to drop the minimum weight of 172 kg prescribed by Motorcycling Australia for the ASBK competition.

There’s no Aprilia Australia-nominated ECU ‘set’ so Matt will be running the standard e-bike that comes with the RSV4 ride and I think it’s fair to say he won’t be able to reduce the car’s weight anywhere near ASBK minimums, especially since he’s racing the RSV4 and not the RSV4 Factory that comes with trick Forged Marchesini rims.

Of course, if any real advantage is shown, Motorcycling Australia reserves the right, as specified in the regulations, to apply performance balance as it sees fit to maintain parity between machines. Any decision to adopt a balanced approach will be taken by the ASBK Management in consultation with the MA Road Race committee as deemed necessary to ensure fair competition.

All in all, I’m 100% against having different power limits for different types of motorcycles and always have been, but if this helps keep someone on the Australian Superbike grid, what if not? if that will make him hang his skin and add a little variety to the ASBK school along the way, then maybe it’s worth a try…

ASBK Calendar 2023

Australian Superbike Championship 2023 mi-bike organized by Motul (ASBK)